Adventure, the Temptress!
by FamousNoOne
Summary: James and Sirius are afraid that Peter is trying to steal their thunder! This is the story of the adventure that brought the Marauders together!


**A/N: Hello, lovelies! I had a bad night, so I went to my good friend Fred who gave me this prompt. I'm not exactly thrilled with it, but, like I said, bad night. So, this is a nice little story that helped get through a bad time. Thanks for the help, Fred!**

**Enjoy! :)**

**P.S. I use a few of J.K.'s direct quotes in here, so there's that. Please don't sue me, Jo.**

"James! Let's go! That Peter boy just left!" Sirius Black whispered in the ear of the other black haired boy so he didn't wake up the blond in the next bed. Sirius' cohort raised up quickly and reached over to the table to fetch his glasses. After he slipped them on, he threw the blankets off of his eleven-year-old body, revealing that he was fully dressed with his wand in his hand.

"Then let's go get him, shall we?"

The two boys tiptoed out of the dormitory, careful not to wake their sandy-haired roommate. They didn't have to worry about the other, smaller blond boy; he had already left. In fact, that's the reason Sirius and his friend James were sneaking out. They were following the little bugger. He'd told them that he was going to go exploring seeing as how everyone made fun of him and laughed at him for not being a true Gryffindor. Sirius guessed that after a month of getting laughed at the boy was just trying to get some respect.

But the way he was going about it was all wrong! Exploring the grounds was something that Sirius and James did together, and mousy little boys were not allowed! Which is why the two raven-haired boys were currently on their way to stop the little adventurer before he took any more of their ideas from them.

When the pair reached the front doors, they had caught up with Peter.

"Oi! Peter!" James said, as if he had yelled he'd have woken the entire castle.

The mousy blond boy whipped around, his hand on the front door to the castle. "H-how did you know what I was doing?" Sirius rolled his eyes.

"You told us yesterday," Sirius said, walking closer to the boy. Even in the dark Sirius could tell that Peter was scared.

"Oh. Oh, right. Well, I suppose you can come along…" he said, pushing open the front doors. Sirius beat him to it, pushing past him and putting his hands on his hips triumphantly, breathing in the fresh air.

"Of course we're coming along. And by coming along we mean we're going and you're staying," James said, standing by Sirius in the same triumphant pose. Sirius looked at his new best mate with a smile. They were a great pair.

"I most certainly am not staying here!" Peter exclaimed once the front doors had closed behind him. "I'm going, and I will prove that I'm not a Hufflepuff!" And with that, Sirius and James' mousy roommate made his way down the front steps and toward…

"The Forbidden Forest?" James squeaked. "He's mental!" But the two boys followed after Peter, weary though they were.

When the three of them reached the edge of the Forest, far from Hagrid the Gamekeeper's hut, they stood, staring into its black, shadowy depths.

"Are we going in?" a voice asked from behind them. The three boys screamed as they whipped around, only to see Remus, their other roommate.

"Merlin's beard, Remus!" Sirius gasped. "Warn us before you sneak up like that!"

"You mean how you all warned me that you were going to leave me alone in the dormitory?" Remus accused. Sirius looked at the boy with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you afraid of the dark or are you looking for adventure?" he asked the sandy-haired boy.

"Neither," he answered. "There are creatures in there that I don't fancy running into."

"Like what?" Peter squeaked. Sirius noted that the boy probably didn't belong in Gryffindor after all.

"Like werewolves," James teased, and then howled. Sirius shushed him when he noticed Remus' cringe.

"Stop being so loud, James!" Sirius said, partly because it was true, but mostly because he could tell it made Remus uncomfortable. He must be afraid of werewolves.

"Oh, come on, Sirius! Where's your sense of adventure?" James asked, clapping him on the shoulder.

"I am adventurous! I'm just worried about these two running to McGonagall," Sirius told him, pointing at Remus and Peter, who looked offended.

"This was my idea!" he exclaimed. "Of course I'm not going to McGonagall, I'm going in that ruddy forest!" And he began to make his way through the trees. Once he was past the first two trees, however, he turned around. "Aren't you all coming?"

Sirius and James looked at each other, and then stared at Remus, who looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Oh, fine!" Remus said, throwing up his hands and casting _Lumos_.

The rest of the boys did the same, and made their way through the first few trees.

Unable to contain his excitement, Sirius leaped forward and said, "Let us pursue that flighty temptress, Adventure!"

xXx

After ten minutes of wandering the forest and only running into a few rabbits, Sirius was starting to get bored.

"Let's go deeper in," he suggested. Remus automatically shook his head.

"There are dangerous things in here, Sirius. It wouldn't end well if we ran into one of them," the blond explained.

"Perhaps we should just go back to the castle," Peter said. "I'd like to get some sleep before classes tomorrow."

"Tomorrow's Saturday, Pete," James said. The mousy boy stopped in his tracks.

"I'm scared, alright? I'm scared and I want to go back!" Peter yelled, then ran away from the group. He thought he was running toward the castle, but Sirius automatically realized he was running further into the forest.

Apparently Remus did, too. "Peter, stop! You're going further in!" The boys had no choice but to chase after their roommate.

They didn't make it very far, though. After a few minutes, Peter stopped suddenly, causing the rest of the boys to run into him. What they didn't expect to be the cause of his sudden halt, however, was a pair of very nasty looking men who were chuckling over a bag of gold and silver goodies, in a small clearing, which was dimly lit with a few flames they had floating over their heads. These were older wizards, and the boys were severely under-educated. Sirius did _not_ see this going well.

Sirius gestured for the other boys to be silent as he crept forward, hoping to hear what these men were up to.

"Who knew Hogsmeade would have so much stuff?" the bigger of the two asked. The other man just chuckled. "Honestly, this will keep us stocked for ages!"

"I can't believe we could get all this from one house!" the other one continued. As the two laughed over their achievements, Sirius turned to his roommates.

"Alright, blokes," Sirius whispered, "we can't just let them get away with this! We need to go back up to the castle and tell someone!"

James rolled his eyes. "Sirius, if we do that, they'll be gone by the time we get back. We have to do this ourselves."

"You can't be serious, James!" Peter whispered to their roommate. "We're only eleven!" For once, Pete was the smartest person in the group.

"I agree with Sirius and Peter, James. We need to let someone else handle this," Remus said quietly. James looked wistfully at the robbers, and Sirius follwed his glance.

"Guys, they're leaving! What do we do?" he asked his roommates

"Not so fast!" Sirius heard James yell, right before he jumped into the clearing. Sirius groaned. Of course, James would be an act-first-think-later kind of bloke.

"What're you doin' in here?" the smaller one growled, pulling out a knife. This caused James to stop in his tracks.

"What? Oh, us? We… We're the Forest Patrol!" he exclaimed, hands on his hips. Sirius looked at Remus in exasperation, who was staring at James like he had grown another head. Peter, however, looked amazed.

"Really? Four kids? I don't think so. In fact, I think—"

But the man never finished his sentence. Instead, he pulled on the cloak of the other man, who looked behind the boys at whatever had scared his partner-in-crime. The two men screamed and dropped the bag of treasure, then ran further into the Forbidden Forest. Sirius didn't want to think of what kind of end they would meet.

"That's right, ya scallywags! Get out of here!" James yelled, chasing after them. He then turned and smiled triumphantly before he realized that there was in fact something behind the rest of them. "Uh, perhaps we should all turn around now," he said, voice shaking.

Sirius did as he was told, coming face-to-face with a pair of red eyes.

He grabbed Peter and Remus by their shirts and dragged them along with him.

"Hell hounds. There are hell hounds in the Forbidden Forest. Good to know," he murmured as the five-foot-tall beast stalked forward.

"This was a bad idea, Pete," James said. Peter simply nodded.

"How much do you boys trust me?" Remus asked quietly. The other boys looked at him with fear in their eyes.

"Why? What are you thinking, Remus?" Sirius asked the boy. He didn't like the look on his roommate's face.

"Just… I can handle this," he said, stepping forward. Sirius grabbed his shirt again, but the blond shook his hand off. The three boys watched, frozen in terror, as their roommate inched forward toward the beast.

The beast's red and black fur was standing on end, and his black teeth were bared. Sirius gasped when smoke came out of the hell hound's nostrils.

"Hello, there," Remus said to the beast, who turned its attention to Remus. "Yes, that's right. I'm just going to stick my hand out here"—Sirius gasped—"and let you sniff it." The hell hound's ears and tail perked up when Remus stuck his hand out.

"What in the name of Merlin is this kid doing?" James whispered to Sirius, who shrugged. He was frightened that he was only going to have two roommates very soon, however.

But to his surprise, the dog very slowly leaned down and sniffed Remus' hand. When he did, his ears and tail tucked into his body and he let out a low whimper.

"Good boy," Remus said, petting the hell hound.

"He's petting it!" Peter squeaked. Sirius didn't understand any of this, so he kept his mouth shut, watching as Remus pet the dog and whispered some things in its ear. After a minute or two, the dog bared its teeth at the boys again, but looked at Remus and slowly backed into the shadows. Sirius didn't relax until he couldn't hear the hound retreating any longer.

After a few moments' silence, James let out a yell of triumph.

"Way to go, Remus!" he said, clapping the boy on the back. "How did you do that?" The blond looked down at his feet, clearly unsure what to say.

"I just… I have a way with canines," he murmured.

Sirius laughed, partly because of the odd choice of words and partly because he was relieved that they had survived.

"Well, I'm tuckered out. Let's head back to the castle," he suggested, ready to get out of the Forest as quickly as possible.

"Wait," they heard from behind them. Peter was standing next to the bag of stolen treasures. "What do we do with this?" Sirius, James, and Remus looked at each other and shrugged, all unsure.

So they did the only thing they could think of.

xXx

"Excuse me, madam, but we found this bag of gold and silver, and we were wondering if anyone had recently broken into your place of residence?" James asked the crying woman who was clutching her baby to her chest. She, and the three Wizarding Law Enforcement Officers, whipped around to face them.

After a few moments explaining what happened, leaving out the part about them being in the Forbidden Forest and the hell hound, the boys were able to quickly escape while the Officers questioned the woman.

On their way back to the castle, all four boys came to the sudden realization that they had just made three new life-long friends. After all, there are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and surviving a hell hound attack is one of them.


End file.
